Brain Health Improves With Epilepsy Surgery

Overall brain health might be improved with epilepsy surgery as per a study at the University of Liverpool, published online in Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Epilepsy is a non-communicable neurological disorder, defined by the recurrence of seizures, due to bursts of electrical activity in the brain. Recurrent seizures often comprise of brief episodes of involuntary movement of a part of the body (partial) or the entire body (generalized) with/without loss of consciousness and control of bowel or bladder function.

One of the forms of epilepsy that shows resistance to drug treatment is refractory temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), otherwise known as mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (mTLE).

Efficacy of Epilepsy Surgery

Despite the evidence of the safety and efficacy of epilepsy surgery among these cases, many clinicians remain hesitant in referring patients for the surgery. The study team used advanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques to analyze the effects of epilepsy surgery on brain health.

The team compared brain-predicted and chronological age differences in patients before and after surgery to healthy controls.

“MRI analysis of brain-predicted and chronological age difference (BrainAGE) is thought to provide a surrogate marker of overall brain health. We have shown that BrainAGE is greater in patients with refractory TLE by at least seven years compared to healthy controls and that this difference is reduced after epilepsy surgery. Our findings are in line with other work suggesting that earlier surgery may benefit patients with refractory TLE”, says the Corresponding author of the study, Dr. Christophe de Bezenac.

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Thus the study suggests that early epilepsy surgery in TLE is associated with reduced brain-predicted age.

Source-Medindia